FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1391, 2 June 1881, Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.

The Farm.— June. , Liy'si' FbnCes, — ;19ie ' 'sites 'intended for live fences should now be prepared. Plough a strip three feet "wide, and if subsoiled at the same time all the better; lee the ground lie rough till "required, either for planting quicks or sowing gorse. , Quicks may be planted at any time from the beginning of May till the end of August or middle of September, they should be cut well back when planted. Early spring will be soon enough for the gorse seed. Working Houses should always be fed on crushed corn, as they usually feed ravenously and bolt much of their food, which yields but little nourishment. Wheat lands are frequently fouled in this way. Never turn working horses out of the stable till well-filled, thoroughly cooled and well-covered. Better far to keep them under cover during the winter season. Flax.— Ground intended for this crop, whether lea or stubble, should now receive a deep ploughing and be allowed to remain so till early spring, when it should be cross-ploughed and grubbed. Wheat Sowing. — No time should be lost in getting in the. remainder of this crop, always remembering that the early sown wheat in favourable soils has often two chances to one over the late sown. Each grain and seed, consumed in earth, Raises its store and multiplies its birth, And from the handful, which the tiller sows, The laboured fields rejoice, and future harvest flows.

Garden Notes, &c. The month of May may be said to close the season in the orchard, the kitchen ami the flower garden, and all future operations will have in view the necessities for the coming year. The successes and failures of the growing months just passed will have suggested many alterations which the careful gardener, be he amateur or professional, will not be slow to note and act upon. The usual routine work of pruning, transplanting, manuring, and trenching requisite at this season will claim attention. Now is the time to clear away the decaying leaves and haulms of rhubarb, seakale, and asparagus, and to treat with a liberal dressing of strong loose manure. Make new plantations of raspberries in rows four by four feet. Plvxtino- Okchard Treks. — At this season, when planting is being largely cariied on, it imy be well to warn the inexperienced against the too common practice of plmting too thickly. It is an evcry-day remark that two trees are put in where there is only room for one, yet fresh plantations continually come under notice in which the trees are planted much too thickly. Large, strong-grow-ing kinds of apples and pears should stand at least from twenty-fire to thirty feet apart if the soil is strong ; for although many planters say they will cut out the supernumerary trees as soon as they encroach on each other, it is very doubtful whether, if they are producing anything like good crops, they are not left long enough to spoil all before any are removed. A good plan in cultivating orchards is to plant the tall standards at the fullest range they are ever likely to occupy, and to fill the intermediate spaces with dwarf spreading bush trees, as orchards thus treated are sooner remunerative than when they are all planted with standard trees.

Ornamental and Ukfful.— A friend snggests a very good ideu as to asparagus:—"The old plan of sticking the plants in close beds is all wrong. There are many bits of fine soil in gardens, even in the co-called pleasure-grounds, and hardy plant borders, where a strong clump of the common asparagus would be a gieat ornament, as well as of use. Many people — myself among the number — wanted to plant the red -fruited asparagus tcnuifoluti>. Vilmorin says it is the Avild form or type of the cultivated asparagus. I shall plant a hundred or more good clumps of asparagus in our borders here, partly for its tender shoots in spring, partly "for its spray for cutting during the summer and autumn months, but mainly for its feathery grace as a beautiful hardy plant." In many a villa garden, even where good asparagus may never be seen raised in the ordinary way ; a capital supply could be obtained by simply dotting a few plants here and there in borders and on the margins of shrubberies, not only as (single specimens, but as groups and masses— never, however, noarpr to each other than four feet. — The Garden,

Tomatoes. — "When danger from light frosts is apprehended, the season may be prolonged by protecting the plants, or some of them, by cloths or papers. Some pull up their vines and hang them up in sheds, etc., for tl^ same purpose. Secure the green tomatoes in sufficient quantities for spiced and other pickles before tho frost injures them. The Flower Garden.— Fashion in gardening is as fickle as fashion in dress has always proved itself. We have persistently advocated the natural (we use the term for want of a better one) system of gardening as opposed the artificial. It is therefore with much pleasure that we insert the following, taken from the Garden, a recognised authority in such matters : — A writer in a contemporary uses the following curious expression :—: — "A well-arranged and well-kept flower garden will always command its own meed of admiration ; so will a choice selection of herbaceous plants kept in good order and well arranged. A sentence which will show the state of inuul —I was going to say depraved state of mind— in which the question is regarded by many. The flower garden and the place for hardy plants are two different things according to him. Lillies, phloxes, delphiniums, daffodils, the many beautiful things which we claim as hardy, do not come under his notion of the flower garden. In old times this was not so, ps the flower garden was understood to mean a department embracing all the beautiful things that grow in the open air. Such is the true, beautiful, and lasting notion of the flower garden, and nothing can ever change it. ' The idea that the flower' garden is a geometrical placard must be rooted up as base and dangerous. All the beautiful hardy things that grow in our open gardens not' suitable for our flower gardens forsooth ! The flower garden should be a museum cf beautiful life— a real garden, not a galvanised piece of business for two or three months only. I only asked that we might have a series of fine pictures instead of vigorous daubing, and a variety of beautiful life instead of nine, months' weary waiting for the advent of the daubing in question, which,, really, satisfies nobody, deadens the 1 pleasure which all p^ple who could realty^ help' gardening might feef in it, and doe's much 1 harm, in ways. — yew Zealand Country Journal.

The Manchester Gity News is authority^ for the statement' that 'the r annual > (ionsumption of ' coal .in 'England' baa be'en> kept for several- years at a &Eod'figHiet<if it has not declined: ><< This -is' accounted 1 fopibjf the fact that great, economies have; been effected, ohieflv in connection wifchj 'the iron traSe?' Since UB7IV '&c- a^xtfal, mvirig'of coal in the' manufacture orjag. iron amountedto-' nearly i -and ft similar reduction has been effected,' 4n pthet te^^^l?hl^e&n()ky'is'£oM'abt: aue ! in- ssar|4os $ar|4o tibti p s opiilafcr,?lt&itaiioE?p|Qii clucecl^yeafs^a^o J ,byt?pr6pheoieS' 'thk^tfeel Qoa^eldi^wouiiaocfu j^;e^iiB<je<g,.vV, \ ,